Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has visited New York to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting.

President Ahmadinejad will address the UN General Assembly which is due to start on September 25. Since taking office, Ahmadinejad has attended all annual UN General Assembly meetings.

However, the U.S. has denied entry visas to Iranian officials, including two ministers, expecting to attend United Nations General Assembly, the Iranian Fars news agency reported.

Fars did not name the two ministers who were denied visas to attend the UN General Assembly meeting but said Iranian President Ahmadinejad would be accompanied by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.

The Persian service of the Mehr News Agency reported on Saturday that 100 people are accompanying Ahmadinejad during his visit.

According to the report, 160 people had applied for visas to accompany the president, but visas have not been granted to 60 applicants so far.

On the other hand, the Fars news agency reported the US State Department refrained from issuing visas for 20 officials of the 160 people for whom the Iranian government had demanded entry visas two months ago.

Many Iranian officials are subject to travel bans under sanctions over Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Over 150 security officers will guarantee Ahmadinejad's security during his stay in New York.

Ahmadinejad is scheduled to hold talks with several of his counterparts on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting. He already met with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 23, in New York.

UN Secretary-General has warned Iranian President Ahmadinejad of the dangers of "inflammatory rhetoric", Radio Liberty reported.

"The secretary-general drew attention to the potentially harmful consequences of inflammatory rhetoric, counter-rhetoric, and threats from various countries in the Middle East," Ban's press office said in a statement.

Ban's warning comes after Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was quoted as saying that Iran could launch a preemptive strike on Israel if it was sure the Jewish state was preparing to attack it.

Ban also told Ahmadinejad that Iran should do all it can to ensure the international community its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

Iran denies Western charges it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

The two also discussed Syria.

"The secretary-general stressed the grave regional implications of the worsening situation in Syria and underlined the devastating humanitarian impact," the statement said.

During his visit Ahmadinejad is set to meet American university students, artists, intellectuals and elites despite the ongoing efforts made by the pro-Zionist lobbies to prevent direct link between American people and the Iranian president.

He has also accepted the interview requests made by several news networks, including CNN, CBS and Russia Today (RT).

Thus, he has already given interview to the CNN and The Washington Post.

"The response of Iran is quite clear, I don't even need to explain that," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with CNN, according to a transcript. "Any nation has the right and will indeed defend herself."

"The Zionists are very much, very adventuresome, very much seeking to fabricate things," Ahmadinejad said, according to CNN. "I think they see themselves at the end of the line, and I do firmly believe that they seek to create new opportunities for themselves and their adventurous behaviors."

Ahmadinejad said in an interview with the Washington Post that Iran wants to continue negotiations with world powers over its nuclear program and does "not take very seriously" Israel's threats.

The Iranian president also said he doubts Americans want war with Iran.

"I don't believe so," he said. "I believe the people of the U.S. are peace-loving people."

On an anti-Islam film which mocks Prophet Muhammad (S), Ahmadinejad said, "Fundamentally, first of all, any action that is provocative, offends the religious thoughts and feelings of any people, we condemn."

"Likewise, we condemn any type of extremism. Of course, what took place was ugly. Offending the Holy Prophet is quite ugly. This has very little or nothing to do with freedom and freedom of speech. This is the weakness of and the abuse of freedom, and in many places it is a crime. It shouldn't take place, and I do hope the day will come in which politicians will not seek to offend those whom others hold holy," Ahmadinejad said.